ABBAYE DE CAUNES-MINERVOIS

A Benedictine abbey that has a superb pre-Romanesque chevet, an abbey church that is richly decorated with red Caunes marble, a material that was famously used at Versailles and in all of Europe’s most prestigious historic buildings. You can also visit a crypt which contains vestiges of the earliest Carolingian church, the 17th-century monastery buildings and a primitive, 12th-century cloister.